We just crept over 100m GP in my guild and do T4 in 1 or 2 resets, alternating to T5 every 3rd or 4th time the raid is launched. We do HPit in 10 minutes from when damage is free and HAAT takes about an hour. We're fairly casual but want to progress, but participation for STR has been "set" as optional due to the -imo- massive lack of reward vs. time invested. Right now we are close to finishing P4 and sit at 40/49 members posting damage and the lowest 10ish people have maybe done 1 or two runs.
Just yesterday I posted a zero in HPit and was more pleased with the rewards I got than those I got for investing at least an hour combined for our most recent STR. That can't be WAI.
I very much like the aesthetics of the STR but mechanics aren't exactly on point, imo.
P2 is good fun with the risk-vs-reward style mechanics and P3 is fine in T4 but gets a bit tiresome already in T5 where the stacks on Traya quickly burn even G11/12 toons and Stand Alone seems very inconsistent (maybe due to my lack of understanding of the mechanic - haven't had much chance to do P3).
I have experimented with several team comps but it does feel like it's JTR or go home - especially for P1, ofc.
DN lead works well in P1 because of the lack of protection otherwise I've mostly just thrown my hardest hitters in all of the phases. I'm building towards an Ayla-lead Jedi team = (almost) no debuffs due to tenacity boost and no buffs to better manage boss Annihilate. Same idea for a Rebel team with Farmboy Luke but I don't truly believe any of them will be viable at higher tiers - outside of a few exceptions Jedi don't hit hard enough to make it work, I think.
Like many others, I'll say that the randomness in P1 is very frustrating, since you often end up with damned if you do/damned if you don't situations - for instance, if only one of your toons has a buff it's a gamble on whether you should use Unb. Will or wait. If you're fairly certain using a basic will result in getting the defense down you can end up in situations where using basic attack will ensure that DN's drain will get his Annihilate off cool down, but using Unb. Will will ensure that Annihilate is still on cool down. Either way it's a restart or a significantly worse run, through no fault of your own. I'm perfectly fine with being punished for a mistake I make but when your run is doomed if you go with either of the only two options, it just feels bad. Same thing goes for DN getting a cooldown reduction for clearing a buff on a toon - having to decide whether or not to use Unb. Will or wait when you have 1 out of 5 toons with a buff for his next turn and then having him attack that 1 toon to get to Annihilate is very annoying.
Lastly, I also find it extremely annoying to often have to guess if your toon with the Unb. Will ability will actually get a turn (more) before Nihilus goes. The way Turn Meter is indicated in the game can be a bit of a nuisance in other parts of the game, but in content where it typically will mean the difference between a good raid-run or a restart (i.e. time wasted) it just doesn't work, imo.
These points might not be very different from so many other aspects of the game being RNG dependent, but it certainly feels worse. Lastly, the health pools of DN(both P1 and P4) in T4/5/6 really needs to be reduced. Something along the lines of 30% would make it feel less like a chore. The health pool(s) for P2 (and maybe P3) could possibly even be increased to make up for some of it. P2 is over for us quite quickly
I'll mention the rewards again since they are - imo - the biggest issue. I didn't expect our guild to be able to take on heroic in the near future and that's the way it should be. The game is better when there is something to work towards. We spent months and months getting to HAAT completion and finally having it on farm felt great. I've seen Carrie mention having a background in MMOs and that you guys kinda, sorta see swgoh as a variation of such. If that's the case then rewards for a raid should help the player advance to the next level of said raid (in WoW normal raid rewards get you to heroic, heroic rewards to mythic etc.). Sure, you might not get exactly the gear piece you need/want in a particular run, or you can pick up something helpful from another part of the game. While the latter is also the case with swgoh, to some extent, rewards for STR in their current state, in no way get us closer to move up a tier. If we were to rely only/mostly on those rewards it will be years before we would make any real progress in beating a higher tier. I sincerely hope another go at a rework will improve this.
Capital Games Team
